General Notes

HUGH DE PORT, an undertenant of Odo Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy, witnessed before the Conquest a charter of Duke William which probably passed at Bayeux. In Domesday Book he appears as the most important lay tenant-in-chicf in Hampshire, holding Basing, Sherborne St. John and 53 other manors in that county; of his Norman overlord, the Bishop of Bayeux, he held 13 manors there and a further 13 in Kent (c). He was at one time sheriff of Hampshire, and in the address of a royal writ for Hampshire of 1080-81 his name took precedence of that of the sheriff. He was one of the barons present at the King's court in Normandy in 1085. In 1088 during the later stages of the proceedings against William of Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham, he together with the bishop of Winchester and Geoffrey de Trailly was sent to order the bishop to send his monk Geoffrey to answer certain charges in the King's court. In 1091 he attested charters of William II. He married Orence, and died as a monk in 1096 (j).  [Complete Peerage XI:316-7, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(c) This suggests that he owed his great position in England to the initiative of the Bishop; in Normandy he had obviously not been a man of much importance.

(j) Anno Domini millesimo nonagesimo sexto, Hugo de Portu factus monachus vicarius Wintoniae dedit ecclesiae Sancti Petri Gloucestriae Lyteltone in Hamptschire Willelmo rege juniore confirmante.  Henricus filius Hugonis de Portu carta sua confirmat donium patris sui.  A purported chater of William I describes him as "in suo orbitu monachus effectus", although it cannot be genuine, there seems no reason to doubt the fact stated, or that Hugh was clothed on his death-bed as a monk of Gloucester, without however entering the monastery.  There can be no doubt that "Vicarius Wintoniae" here means sheriff of Hampshire.  Hugh had a daughter, whom as "Adelidis soror Henrici de Port" the Liber Winton shows as holding a house in Winchester.  Emma de Percy also had a house there; she was the wife of William de Percy, and either a daughter or near relation of Hugh.

Note: I have Emma as a sister, daughter of Hugh's father.  This is partly based on unsourced information from World Connect; plus the dates given for Emma's husband in Burke' Peerage would indicate Emma's father, "of Semer, Yorks", was born earlier than Hugh of Basing.  Note also that Hugh of Basing, at least in the above text from CP, does not have manors in Yorkshire.